If some group or organization wants to bring attention to a cause or event, the easiest way to do that is by celebrity endorsement.

If the famous person is well liked, chances of the group or organization’s “ask” being answered (donation, signature, whatever) are probably better.

Celebrities like to do this because many of them are big-hearted and like to help.

The challenge is so many celebrities are supporting so many causes, the message can fade pretty quickly.

To wit (don’t I sound ejukated) the Gulf Coast Oil Disaster – I’m sure there have been telethons and maybe a concert and I’ve been outta that loop (that’s the fade part I spoke about). Doesn’t mean I don’t care, it just means that their message (the event organizer’s message) didn’t resonate with me or get my attention. Theirs is a hard job.

But today I saw a YouTube video freezeframe (that still image that marks where a video screen is located) with Sandra Bullock holding up her index finger. That visual caught my eye and I watched. And I listened. And I thought you might want to too.

Theirs is a hard job – getting the message to everyone – but not an impossible job.

Tags: commentary, marketing, public service announcement, social media, video, youtube by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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audio'connell's YouTube channel

So I’ve been doing more videos on my YouTube channel, a channel some of you have subscribed to and others of you have totally blown off which is fine except you miss some OK content with more content still in development.

The videos I’ve been shooting (in HD no less) on my Kodak Zi8 have been OK quality and I am re-learning video editing on with Windows movie maker – which sounds about as painful as it is…I’ve not worked with it personally but I just have a gut sense that Apple does all this easier. Oh well, not going there.

Any way, lots of people (more than I realized before today) have actually watch this stuff. When I was at VOICE 2010 people said “hey, saw your videos on the blog, they’re great.” For some reason I thought they were kidding or being polite or politely kidding. They weren’t.

But I was a little nervous about the branding for all this. I’ve wanted to keep it low key but the purpose of social media is to get a bits of branding out there. I didn’t have a concept for how to do this until about a week or two weeks ago. At which point I imagined a concept and then imagined how much I’d have to pay some graphics person (or hobo with a mac) to create my idea.

Then I turned to the web and YouTube and realized how amazingly easy it was to execute my idea….which of course took me 3x longer than a smart, talented person but I’ll take my meager successes where I can find them. Plus I had to reload all the videos so my stats for these videos got zeroed out…but to those who watched, I say thank you.

So I finished my intro and added them to my three original shorts and will craft something for the voiceover demo pieces as well – although I just want to throw my name up there so it doesn’t look like I actually produced the videos I simply voiced.

To follow is likely amateurish and unprofessional to most but I was amazed it came out looking as good as it did anyway.

It’s at the very beginning of this piece and I didn’t have the budget to rent a lion like the folks over at MGM (I suppose you have to be of a certain age to get the humor in that). I hope you like it.

Tags: commentary, social media, technology, video, youtube by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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After the worldwide success of my YouTube debut a few months ago, while I had some time this week during a commercial session, I thought you would enjoy watching how I performed my parts for a radio spot I was cast in.

This again was a remote recording session but I think its great fun and at the end you hear the finished part – chosen not by me but by the producer of the spot. I hope you enjoy it.

And if you are not yet a subscriber to my YouTube channel, I hope you will be, it’s free.

Tags: commentary, commercials, social media, video, video production, voice actors, voice talent, voiceover, youtube by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
5 Comments »

Back in 1985, when I was working at WVUD-FM in Dayton (now WLQT), CBS Radio affiliates were given early access, via network satellite, to “We Are The World” before records (yes records) got mailed to stations. WVUD as a CBS affiliate could download it and as production manager, that’s what I did, running the cart down to the on-air studio so Pat Haverland, our midday guy, could be first to air it in the market; he did and we were.

So the song has always had a special place within me…and (for different reasons) just about everybody else.

I will grant you that 25 years ago and then again this year, the professional singers who participated in the recordings had the best of intentions and indeed turned in fine performances.

But when I saw George Whittam’s facebook posting of this very unique video of a less famous rendition, it made me think that maybe this was how it was supposed to be performed in the first place. Social media done extremely well? What do you think?

Tags: commentary, radio, social media, video, youtube by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
3 Comments »

the audio'connell YouTube page

I am not a pioneer on most things, including social media. I like to see where things are going, if they are going to build up a big enough head of steam and then decide to join in.

It was that way for me with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and now with YouTube where I have create my own page and produced my first video. Why?

Well, my college degree is in Radio/Television communication and I did own a video production company for six years so this is not totally unfamiliar territory. But I wasn’t sure on many fronts if I wanted to dip my toe in the video waters via social media.

Two things changed that.

One was when Jeff Kafer said he wanted to produce a video of the VO-BB voice talents recreating “The Night Before Christmas”. I didn’t have any of the tools needed at the time or a clue about the new way video worked but I decided to plod through it (embrace change etc., blah, blah). My finished work for that piece wasn’t stellar and Jeff had to tweak it a lot to make it presentable but it put me in to a more “I can do it” frame of mind. So thank you Jeff for that.

Next was the technology. I tried a Logitech camera for the VO-BB video but I thought it wasn’t sharp enough (or maybe the dullness was a result of the talent within my lens). Then I attended an Ad Club of Buffalo presentation featuring Kodak’s Chief Blogger, the very kind and knowledgeable Jennifer Cisney. Part of her presentation, not surprisingly included mention of some Kodak products including their Zi8 portable video camera. At the same time Steve Garfield, who I had met briefly some years ago at Podcamp Boston, published his new book (which I bought) on video and spoke highly of that same camera which had an input for external audio (which most cameras don’t have and which was something of importance to me). At $200 I figured I could make an educated mistake.

Calling around to some friends for editing tools advice and with my own trail and error (as is the way we all seem to learn, technologically, these days) I was ready to make my mistakes more publicly.

I am quite sure that after I do this for a while, I’ll look back at this video in disgust for its poor quality in any number of areas but for now, it’s not the worst thing I’ve seen and hopefully the content is a bit different.

I hope you’ll subscribe to my YouTube page and lets enjoy this ride together. Thanks.

Tags: commentary, facebook, linkedin, social media, tv, twitter, video, voice talent, voiceover, youtube by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
4 Comments »